Life Part 1

So glad you stopped by, there has been much happening around our place since I last blogged. 

Well, we have decided to move to the country next year.  We like the area north of Christchurch in and around north Canterbury and the Waimak. River.  With this decided, we now face the task of tidying up our section and last minute painting jobs inside.  We imagine putting the house on the market end of January/ beginning of February.  So do stop by and read how we undertake this move.  We are all very excited about the chance to move to the country.  I think the day I got chickens was the moment when I really wanted to live on a small farm.  Georgia is very very excited because she will finally get her own horse and be able to ride and look after it in a safe environment, on our property.  We are not in favour of Georgia having grazing in a paddock out of the city, where she would be on her own all day and with no adults around should anything happen.  We worry about stranger danger and her being vunerable on her own.  She said all she wants to do is be able to wake up, look out the window and see her horse.

Winter has well and truly disappeared along with spring.  Our weather has warmed up and we are enjoying lovely warm weather everyday now.  Very hot days are also with us.  In the last week we had a 28.5 degree day and a 28.2 yesterday.  Hot going when you are trying to landscape your grounds in preparation for selling.  Speaking of selling, I thought I would touch on the selling with you, and also bring you up to speed on what we have been doing since June. The preparations involved in making your house presentable for selling are quite time consuming.  And as you can imagine we have a big job ahead with making our yard look "urbanised" and beautifilly landscaped.  But we think it's worth every ounce of effort to get the best price we can, that money will allow us to spend more at the other end where it matters.

The last of the rhodos in bloom

So, what have we been doing lately?  Well in general, parts of Christchurch are very slowly returning to normal.  A new normal though, 9 months after 22 February and 14 months after the initial big quake.  The aftershocks  have disapeared almost completely, and we are just getting the odd one every now and then.  People are now being forced to move out of their homes due to whole suburbs being unrepairable meaning a massive scale of home/land buy up by the government , 6000 homes so far.  Deconstruction work is still going on in the city where still more buildings are coming down.  There are lots of spaces where there once stood buildings.  Small businesses are popping up in these spots, mainly vendors selling coffee and hot food.

Well, the gardens are planted out with less vegetables this season.  Infact the gardens are being removed in a big way to make way for lawn and that landscaped look.  Once the garlic and potatoes are done that garden will go as well.  That will leave the main garden behind the picket fence.  We were just going to leave everything pretty much like it is.  But I read a really good article in Saturday's Press about not underestimating the value of a landscaped section when selling.  People want to see that that all the hard work is done so that they can just move in and enjoy what's there.  People will be unlikely to buy homes with gardens and lawns that need lots of work doing to them.

The garden beds being returned to grass & the new grass we have to grow under the clothes line where the tent sat for 6 weeks.

In September, EQC began repair work on our home.  We were given the option of moving to a motel for the duration of the work, however, with all our pets this made it difficult to do.  We compremised and moved into our tent on the lawn.  For about 6 long weeks we lived in that tent.  Our garden shed became a makeshift kitchen complete with fridge and microwave.  We had the use of our 2nd toilet in the laundry, but no showering/bathroom facilities. MMMmmm, this was hard let me tell you. Our family, neighbours and friends kindly let us use their showers for that time.  But we were all pleased when we got our bathroom back.

 The extra room on the end has been taken down, so the tent originally had 3 rooms

Life in a large tent with 2 teenagers and 2 dogs certainly made life interesting to say the least.  We had to evacuate on 2 occasions due to major storms flooding the ground.  There were times when the tent was lashed all night with gale force winds as well.  But I look back now that we have moved back into our newly decorated home and think how thankful we are that we only had small cracks that needed some plaster and paint.

Thanks for stopping by,

Blessings

Lee-Anne

My blog has finally gone to the dogs

Around the Home
It's doesn't feel like that long ago that I began blogging about our daily and weekly lives.  Eight months has now passed...where has that time gone? One thing I do remember with great joy, was the encouragement I received from experienced bloggers here in New Zealand, like Leanne @ Cottagetails. I suddenly felt part of a huge community of like minded women, with lives fairly similar to mine.  My lovely cousin Ruth, who lives in Queensland, Australia, is just starting out in the blogging world as well.  If you have a moment, pop across to her new blog creations by Ruth.  If you are into crafts and quilting, Ruth is a gifted quilter who even runs her own patchwork and quilting business.

More Dog Stories
It seems these days that this place has really gone to the dogs.  Banshee, the puppies mum, is now feeding a 6 day old cocker spaniel pup.  The puppy is from a litter of 9, and the mum has become seriously ill with peritonitis and endometriosis.  The 8 other pups are being fed successfully by bottle, but the one we are looking after is refusing to feed.  So Georgia has taken over the role of midwife again and going over and putting this wee fella on.  The puppy then has his own wee box to live in.  He makes the 3 other puppies look enormous.

In the garden
This past Sunday was a perfect day to spend in the garden.  Alf and I had kept the day free of errands and other jobs, we even stayed home from church.  Sunday for us was a much anticipated day and the winter weather was gloriously clear, with a crisp frost to start the day.  Two big jobs were on our "to-do" list and were scheduled to be done. Firstly the silver birch tree that we stood under in the midst of summer, was finally cut down to make way for a new big garden.  Alf had a wonderful homeschool moment where he taught Alex chainsaw safety and how to cut up small branches.  Baby steps first thankfully, before any actual tree cutting down gets done.

 Alf sawing down the tree & Alex sawing off small branches

A homeschooling lesson for the farm loving boy and his dad.

Secondly, we are putting in a new path from our "garden gate" through the garden.  Instead of having 3ish smaller gardens, I will have 1 large long garden and a shorter one next to the chicken coop.

The new path heads towards the tree that Alf is trimming, turns right past the compost, then to the plastic house.

Mmmmm....clearly some tidying up to be done here

Who needs to hire a compactor, when you can just grab the nearest teenage boy

Georgia picking off the summer's dried beans for storage

Happiness is.......sunning yourself in the winter sun

Our School Year Begins

Homeschool Happenings
Where has the last week gone?  I have been very busy with the planning side of our homeschool. Spending every spare moment on this, so sorry there was no blogging. As the holidays have continued more and more of my new curriculum has been arriving, until at last I have everything I need to start school.  We are starting a week early, giving us a whopping 12 week term off the mark.  This will allow us to have some days up our sleeve during the year.  If, through the year, we want to one of those days off, then we can simple have a quiet day off schoolwork. Yesterday we were straight into study; math, grammar, writing, spelling for one and both starting science.

I am so excited about the curriculum I have purchased and will tell you what we are using in upcoming blogs.  It has been a full year since we began this journey, and most of that without many resources.  This has been for several reasons;

Firstly it has been a steep learning curve in just finding out about what curriculum is available and what will suite us as a family.  Both Alex and Georgia come with very individual needs that require a much different approach and specific resources. I have spent countless hours on the Internet researching the best programmes for their needs.  We do some subjects together like geography, history and math together.  So again, I need resources that can be taught at intermediate and high school levels simultaneously.  One is a very good writer and the other struggles to put any thoughts physically down on paper. One a good speller the other needing a very good programme to help with spelling. So you get the picture. 

Secondly, the setting up costs for a new homeschool (just quietly) are huge.  We have been slowly adding desks, whiteboards, whiteboard marker pens, more desks, bookcases, stationary, chairs, printers etc. Not to mention resources, programmes, books, cds. As you bloggers who already homeschool will realise, these costs soon add up.  We  have been collecting things peace meal through the year by buying secondhand or in some cases going straight to the manufacturer (whiteboard) and not the shop selling it at retail prices.  All this takes lots of time, but worth every minute of it.

Our new school year started off with a meeting discussing our goals for the coming year.  This didn't go quite as I'd planned.  Perhaps at  ages 12 and 14 I was being overly optimistic? However, what was a real success was the discussion on changes we could make for the new year.  What worked for us in 2010 and what was a dismal failure.  This was a brutally honest talk, and I am thankful the children spoke with honesty and sincerity about how they actually felt about our homeschool day.  They both agreed they wanted more individual time with me. We discussed that for me to work more with one child, the other would have to work quietly and independently somewhere else, and be relied upon to do this. Some responsibility creeping in here, which I am aiming for more of.

Around the Home and Garden
The garden has been providing us with all our vegetables for dinner each night.  What a wonderful feeling not having to buy any vegetables from the market.  We are mindful though that we must prepare for the coming autumn which here in New Zealand, is just around the corner.  And you know me, I LOVE autumn.  Lets take a look around the house and garden...

Herbs are pretty at the moment

 We seemed to have got something right with our beans, I am getting this much every couple of days.  Plus we are eating them for dinner as well.

The corn maturing, won't be long now

cabbages

We are listening to The Hobbit on audio cassette

There is something about our tables that the cats love.  Here is Poppy keeping me company while I am planning our school work....

... here is Sebbie doing much the same.

Until next time, bye from Lee-Anne

 

Life Returns To Normal At Last

Daily Happenings...

I am soooo much better now that I'm over all this nausea and other unpleasant symptons of the food poisoning I had last week.  In fact I'm almost chomping on the bit to get things done. The last week has just flown by and I want to get my garden back into some sort of order and also spend a couple of days mapping out Term One's schoolwork. Finish the spring cleaning I started as well.  My kitchen gleams from the day of furious scrubbing I spent in there.

Garden Happenings....
As I wandered a the yesterday I certainly noticed how much the veges have grown and in some cases done their thing and are ready to pull out (read cauliflowers), and that I need to make ready the ground for autumn produce. Ooooh! We have been eating our beetroot.  I have been roasting them, just lightly coated in oil and sliced in half.  What a amazing sweet flavour they have done that way, yet they still retain the classic beetroot taste as well. There really aren't enough to bottle and it's nice to eat them as fresh as possible.

I was at the nursery to pick up parsnip seed (last packet on the shelf as everyone else has the same idea as me) and popped a sage plant for my herb garden on the counter as well. Thinking ahead to next year's roast chicken for Christmas!

So more carrots to sow and some parsnips for the winter.  They will go into the space where the potatoes have come out of.  Next year we definately need to plant twice as much potatoes for a longer harvest.  Speaking of next year's garden, look what happens when you have too much time on your hands and an very early morning coffee session outside....

Mapping out some more land for garden, the other potential garden runs between this one marked out with garden tools and the wheelie bin and tyre swing and the boundary fence.

This whole plan hinges on the removal of this Silver Birch tree.  We already topped this tree in the spring and were amazed at how much light we now have. We like the light that now streams into our living rooms too much.

 Frugal Meals...

With me being sick last week, the meals were certainly more expensive and more instant to make than perhaps I would personally plan for.  However, I'm not complaining in the least as the best was made a of bad situation and it was all hands on deck for food preparation.  So this week, things are a lot tighter to make up for this. This is what I have planned for the meals until Thursday...

Last Friday we had Chili, rice and seasonal veges like those roasted beetroot, salad, beans and broccoli

Saturday was Macaroni Cheese enough for 5 of us

Sunday was leftover red kidney beans made into another Chili in Crepes, salad, green beans and rice

I covered these crepes with a white sauce and grated cheese, makes a little go a long way.  This meal fed 5 adults with almost one dish for left overs.

Monday will have a go at making ravioli stuffed with left over roasties and seasonal veg

Tuesday Fried Rice, seasonal veges and a pudding

Wednesday Chili Bean and Potato Bake with seasonal veg and baked bread

Nibbles

Our Caterpillar, Nibbles, is certainly living up to it's name.  Nibbles is now 35mm long and very wide and chews day and night.  Reminds me of this...

Bye for now, Lee-Anne

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas!

It is finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here now.  The presents are sitting under the tree ready for unwrapping tomorrow.  Christmas food is being prepared in the kitchen, and the countdown has begun. There is a heightened sense of excitement emanating from the children and us adults as well.  Even at nearly 15 and 12, Christmas is still a big thing to them.

We did a marathon last shop around the city, starting off very early to avoid the crowds.  I wanted to spend the day at home today, so it all had to be yesterday.  The shopping was successful, but tiring for us especially me as the driver.  However, we decided to park a wee way away from one of our major malls to avoid that whole carpark thing this time of year.  Alex, we think, has managed to break a toe while pushing our trolley back to the car.  He is having a very low key day today, nursing a very sore foot.

Here is a list of what I need to do today in preparation....

1.   Make sponge for trifle

2.   Make custard and assemble trifle

3.   Make stuffing and cook 2 chickens to have cold tomorrow

4.   Decorate and set table for champagne breakfast, which is actually just sparkling grape juice.  Brunch is something we have done now for 3 years, so is a special time.  Everyone insists that we have brunch and it seems to have become a tradition.  This year is extra special as we have a student from Brazil living with us over the Christmas period and he is experiencing a "Kiwi" Christmas for the 1st time.

5.   Church at 5pm for a special family service.

6.   Fish and chip tea at the beach afterwards.  After extremely hot and windy temperatures this week I am worried it may being raining this evening.

So there we are.  The only things left to do for tomorrow are make a pavlova in the morning and cook the waffles for brunch.  We are spending the day at my Mum and Dad's house.  Everyone is taking something for the meal.  I will be taking cold chicken, trifle and pavlova.  The soft drink and juices for a punch have already gone around.

In the garden...
What a week it has been weather wise.  Some days have been too windy to even venture out the door, let alone garden.  So the poor garden is a bit worse for wear as a result.  The gale force winds have blown over plants and the extreme heat has dried out the ground.

 The yard is a mess with leaves blown off trees

The vegetables have been blown over

Mum and Dad have called in for a cuppa, Dad is checking whether the garlic is ready.  And it is, Dad digs it all out, Thanks Dad

Georgia carries the bundle of garlic to be strung up, smells divine.

We help ourselves to the peas that are ready.  The children were amazed that you could do that.  A wonderful "moment" to share, the children nibbling fresh peas that they had helped plant.

Merry Christmas from  everyone here at Tales from the Garden Gate